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| “ | My... town? Hmph, don't make me laugh. Who gives a damn about this crap town.
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” |
Ricardo "Rico" Banderas, known in Japanese as Richardo Banderas (リカルド・バンデラス, rikarudo banderasu) is the massive demi-human champion of the Battling Area in Nortune, the Imperial capital of Kislev. He is a playable character in Xenogears.
Appearance[]
Rico is a muscular demi-human with wild orange hair, green skin, and yellow eyes. He also has a scar on his left cheek. In anime cutscenes, his skin is depicted as grayish green.
His outfit has him wearing a black vest with spike designs, black pants, and matching boots with purple linings. He also retains the orange prison collar on his neck and wears black wristbands on both of his wrists.
Biography[]
Born in 9969, Rico was the son of Kaiser Sigmund and Empress Anne. However, before he was even born, the trajectory of Rico's life changed drastically due to a plot hatched by the Ethos's Kislev branch, called the Committee.
As revenge for being driven out of Kislev by Kaiser Sigmund[1], the Committee plotted to disrupt the Kaiser's line of succession by having Anne's primary physician, a secret Ethos agent, administer drugs that changed Anne's unborn son's genetic makeup.[2][3] When Ricardo Banderas was born, he had much more overt demi-human features than that of his father. The Ethos associates banished Rico and Anne from the capital and told Sigmund, who was out on the front lines of Aveh at the time, that his wife and child had died.
Ethos then inflamed the demi-human prejudice in the region as part of a wider plan. As Rico grew up, his already obvious demi-human features became even more pronounced, resulting in other children tormenting him, much to his mother's dismay.
Eventually, Anne developed a wasting illness, which eventually claimed her life, leaving Rico an orphan at the age of ten.
After his mother's death, Rico became a criminal to survive and found his way into the Prison D-Block. During this time he became acquainted with a newly-found subordinate outside among the Battlers and Amazonesses, Hammer the Supplier, whom he'd typically use to clean his laundry. Rico was not always fair to Hammer however, as he was often the subject of his verbal and physical abuse.
Rico's power and skill made him Battler material, and he became the reigning champion of Kislev in 9991 for many years. His one desire, however, is to avenge his mother and himself by killing the Kaiser.
Xenogears[]
Upon losing the title of battling champ, Rico resumes his assassination attempts on the Kaiser, until his subsequent recapture. After this, he is dealt with harshly in the form of being pitted against a Rankar without his Gear. Fei comes to his rescue and attempts to convince him that there must be things for him to live for.
Rico assists Fei and Elly in saving Nortune.
Upon the sight of his hometown coming under attack from Gebler forces, Rico callously remarks, "Who gives a damn about this crap town!?" Fei's words reach him and he cynically resides to the notion, "...I'm crap too." He then retrieves his Gear among the confusion of the sky battle, and rushes to assist Fei.
After Fei and Rico defeat Dominia, the two struggle to change the Hecht's trajectory, when Elly suddenly joins them, allowing the three to shift it beyond the initial target. When the impact points towards Nortune's residential district, their Gears overheat, forcing Fei and Rico to let go, while Elly hangs on, barely managing to escape her own death.
After successfully averting Kislev's destruction, Rico rescues Fei and his friends from secured checkpoint of armed guards. At this point, he claims his only interest is finding a way out of Kislev, and intends to move on after that. He accompanies the party to the Goliath Factory and assists them in successfully fighting off Grahf from halting their progress, with a little help from Hammer (whom he'd pay repercussion to for being cocky with his success in shooting down his Gear). This victory would be short-lived as the war ship they stole would soon be shot down by Bart via the Yggdrasil.
After being rescued, and not knowing who the culprits was to his predicament, Rico wished to meet Bart, as he was intrigued by his status as a revolutionary. When he finds out that Nart was the one responsible, Rico gives the fellow exiled prince a bruise in return for his trouble. When Bart apologizes to him, Rico shrugs it off, saying that he's more impressed with the quality of his Gear and the the others in the dock. Upon the realization that he can't learn about the world from inside a dark prison, he elects to join Bart's crew, and Fei's party to this extent.
Upon reaching Solaris with the party, and hearing the position Hammer would choose to have as an informant, Rico chastises him for being pretty much useless in that he'd only be good at watching people die.
Upon Rico's capture and subsequent escape from Solaris, he is shocked and infuriated with Hammer's betrayal, cursing him just as he tries but fails to capture Elehayym Van Houten for Karellen.
Hammer in Anima Dungeon Two.
In Anima Dungeon Two, it is revealed that Hammer was surgically grafted into the structure of a massive Wel-Gear. Instructed by Karellen to destroy the party at the second Anima Dungeon and again return Elly to him, Hammer's new Wel-Gear form is a tough opponent. However, in spite of performing several self-modifications in battle, he was unable to defeat Fei and Rico.
Hammer reminds Rico to go back to Kislev, as he's next in line to be Kaiser, much to Rico's surprise of him knowing this. Hammer dies when his Wel-Gear falls into a massive ravine and self-destructs.
Rico mourns for Hammer, angrily insisting that that it hadn't been Hammer's fault and fondly reminisces about the time he spent with him, in stark contrast to how they were usually seen interacting when Hammer was alive.
Rico would stay with the party up until after the destruction of Deus, as well as after Fei's return from rescuing Elly.
Boss battle[]
If the player passes the "Baptismal Ceremony" when first meeting him, Rico will challenge Fei. This fight cannot be won normally, as Rico's stats are extremely high (except his Ether defense). While it's possible to inflict damage to him via either cheating, excessive grinding or using Fei's Chi attacks, should his HP be depleted the player is still considered to have lost the fight.
His AI script casts Steel Body one turn, Steel Fist the next, and then unleashes an 11 AP (invalid without cheating or storing deathblow points) combination of four triangle attacks, two square attacks and one x attack, which will inflict maximum damage to Fei.
Gameplay[]
Rico is one of the strongest characters, but also one of the slowest. His attacks deal a lot of damage compared to any other character, which alone makes up for his speed.
Rico prefers to use bare fists and his fighting style is wrestling. He demonstrates most of his wrestling techniques with moves such as backbreakers, piledrivers, suplexes, and lariats when using his deathblows. When using his elemental deathblows, Rico can perform a triple suplex on his opponent and a lariat embedded with fire. His final piledriver move causes especially heavy damage to his opponent. It is important to note that Rico is the only party member who suffers a severe loss of utility against giant enemies without his Gear, as his deathblows are all grappling techniques, and as such he cannot grab opponents who greatly outclass him in size. The only move that Rico can use on giant enemies is Flame Lariat as it does not involve grappling.
In Gear battles, both Stier and his Omnigear, El-Stier, fight using their bare fists, headbutts and some wrestling techniques when using their deathblows, in addition to gunshots from a vulcan chamber.
Deathblows[]
Rico Deathblow Compilation
Rico's Deathblows.
- Rico Rocket:
- 4 AP - Death Drive: - 5 AP
- Banderas: - 5 AP
- Dragon Fist: - 6 AP
- Fire Bomb: - 6 AP
- Pile Crusher: - 6 AP
- Spin Strike: - 6 AP
- Death Roll: - 7 AP
- Flame Lariat: - Fire Elemental, 7 AP
- Hell Splash: - 7 AP
Guest Appearances & Cameos[]
Rico in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.
Rico was a Rare Summon in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius during their Xenogears collaboration periods.
Quotes[]
- "I don't need a reason to beat the crap out of anyone who pisses me off. And of course that means you too."
Trivia[]
- Rico bears a strong resemblance to Blanka from the Street Fighter series. This may have been intentional as the director stated in Perfect Works, "If he looks familiar from other games, that's just in your mind."
Gallery[]
